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Iran Crude Oil Prices Slide

Iran's crude prices extended their recent losses into the week to May 12, mirroring the withering effect of a global initiative to cut down supplies and lift stubbornly low prices.

Iran Heavy, one of the country's main export grades, traded down 62 cents at $47.49 per barrel in the week to May 12. The crude has averaged $51.17 a barrel this year, thanks to large gains in January and February, state news agency IRNA reported on Tuesday, citing a report by the Oil Ministry. Light crude settled at $45.21 per barrel, down 21 cents in weekly trade. Thirteen members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and eleven other producers committed last year to erase 1.8 million barrels in daily oil output in the first half of this year.

Oil slumped to $48 per barrel earlier in May, the lowest in five months, after US government data showed production cuts from OPEC and other exporters had not been enough to reduce US supplies.

However, prices have offset some of the losses since Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world's top oil producers and exporters, announced on May 15 that the cuts could be extended by nine months to March next year.

The price of OPEC basket of thirteen crudes stood at $51.50 a barrel on Monday, compared with $50.87 on Friday, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations. International benchmark Brent and the West Texas Intermediate were trading at $53 and $50 price range on Tuesday.

Iran pumped 3,759 million barrels per day in April, trimming 39,000 barrels in daily crude oil production compared to the previous month, latest OPEC data shows. The country's production is within the limits of the oil agreement in which it was allowed to produce an average of 3.8 million barrels daily in the first half of the year.